Doom 3/Halo 2/HL2 Disappointing Games?Sinusoidal Tendency of Hype/Game Realtionship

[icallmedan]

**Please Read! It's long, but I would like your opinions:
**Below are my personal thoughts and opinions on these games, you may feel differently, and you may not

I have to say within the past couple of months I have been very disappointed with games that have come out (read Doom 3 and Halo 2) except for one, Half Life 2. While discussing these disappointments with my friends, we realized that these games are not necessarily bad, but rather, they do not life up to their hype. As you all know and have experienced, this hype comes from many places: word of mouth, advertising, news articles, forums. The desire for a certain game can be compared to a sinusoidal curve of a sine graph. Over the years of development of Half Life 2, Halo 2, and Doom 3 the hype related to the game has fluctuated up and down, with such usual high points occurring around E3, developer announcements, and directly before the game launch. Usual low points occur whenever there is an absence of developer announcements, advertisements, or other media hype. Days before the launch of Doom 3 and Halo 2 the hype surrounding both games swung up from low points to highpoints very quickly, and then when they came out, they provided a little bit of fun, but overall the games had to many faults, and they did not live up to their hype or the preceding games. Doom 3 in my opinion was visually stunning, but beyond that it did not interest me much. The game was to repetitive; you walk into a room, the lights mysteriously go out, zombies attack you from behind. This made the game pretty boring to me. Halo was an amazing game, quite possibly the best game for the XBOX. The graphics were very good, game play was great, the story was interesting, and the amount of replayability was great. I was able to beat the game, every level, on Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary and it was fun every time. Halo 2 on the other hand had all this hype to life up to. It had to not only be a good game, but it had to surpass Halo 2. I feel that it does not accomplish this. At some times visuals are good, but overall the graphics leave me not impressed. During every cut scene video there is an error where the bump mapping does not immediately appear, which made me cringe when I see it. (My friends also see this bug, so it is not just a bad disc) Additionally, with Bungie trying to make the faces in the game look realistic, they made every faces look as though they are 80 years old. Game play is also a tad distracting with the Dual Wield option, where it makes it hard to select the weapon combination that you want. This is my experience. I will say that multiplayer mode on XBOX life is fun, but the levels are too dark. Overall I have been disappointed with Halo 2 also. Halo 2 again, does not live up to the hype that increased days before launch. Half Life 2 on the other hand is an amazing game that is quite possible the best game of the year. The visuals are stunning even on medium settings and the frame rates are great. The game is also very interesting to play. I love the incorporation of puzzles and traps that you need to accomplish certain tasks in the game. I believe Valve has developed a great game that lives up to the hype that surrounded it. The hype surrounding Half Life 2 (HL2) did not really spike before launch like the other games. I believe that the hype was on its way back up, but it never peaked. For example, I never saw any TV ads or any internet hype promoting HL2. When I went to ebgames.com and other video game retailer websites HL2 was barely mentioned. On ebgames.com the main game was World of Warcraft. HL2 had a little picture in the bottom right corner, but it was not highlighted. HL2 launched with relatively little hype, and I am wondering if there is any correlation between hype and a great game. I know it is absurd to think this way logically, but in abstract thinking it makes sense. Does anyone remember a game Far Cry? Maybe not the best game of all time, but there was little hype surrounding it at launch, but it proved to be visually impressive and had a pretty good story. In conclusion it seems that the amount of hype surrounding a game affects your opinion on whether or not the game is great. One has to think, Does the game live up to the hype? It is easier to make a game live up to little hype and far surpass it, that it is to make a game that has a lot of hype and far surpass it. Is this why we believe certain games are better than others? I ask for you opinion on this matter.

**Do you feel the way I do? Do you feel differently? What is your opinion on this matter? I hope my "essay" did not make me seem like an absolute authority on games as it was opinion, but I would like to see if my opinions match anyone else’s.

-Dan

[Yuanji]

i actually feel there was a lot of undadvertised hype for HL2 last year but it sorta died down after the people kept on pushign it back. HL2 is a perfect example of not releasing a game till the developers feel that it is perfect. i believe that games such as doom3 and farcry and HALO2 could have been much better had you given them a couple of months to work out some stuff. HALO2 is pretty fun, has a great storyline, but the level design leaves something to be desired. something like this could have easily been worked out had the game designers been given an extra half to a full year to work it out and had the motivation to do so.

[icallmedan]

Originally Posted by Yuanji i actually feel there was a lot of undadvertised hype for HL2 last year but it sorta died down after the people kept on pushign it back

Hence my explaining of the sinusoidal tedency of game hype!

[DragonNOA1]

While I could write a reply just as long as yours, Dan, I will sum it up to say that I agree with you.

While some say that Far Cry could have used more time, I think CryTek being the small developer that they are had it close enough and had to push it out, if not to say that they were first. No one saw it coming and the game has done great, and will be a benchmark for years to come if nothing else. Hopefully it continues to get updated and the latest features to be added to it. I'm sure we'll be talking about it still come next year.

On to more of what you were talking about. I buy games on discount. I think knowing I will not go out and buy the latest game (b/c of the prices) doesn't hype it up for me personally. I wait for patches and problems to be released and fixed. When I finally get around to buying a game, all the hype on the 'net has pretty much died down. I can sit back, take my time, and explore and enjoy.

I have been playing through Doom 3 (bought it for 27.50$ shipped) and I like it b/c I don't expect it to do anything but look good. I think that is the only hype I couldn't get away from, and you know what, it does look good. I'm playing through, trying to get myself into the story, and I'm having fun. And in the end, that's all I can ask for.

[icallmedan]

Originally Posted by DragonNOA1 I'm playing through, trying to get myself into the story, and I'm having fun. And in the end, that's all I can ask for.

Nice outlook on game playing!

[TwoRails]

Yes, I agree. Hype is very powerful and has lessened many things. A good example is the Super Bowl and the large amount of hype it gets; one expects the best game of the year but even if it's a good game, it often doesn't live up to the high expectations.